wagamama"wagamama" means "selfishness" in Japanese, but in a literal sense it means "as I am".

  • 1. Closing of Nagoya Cinematheque
    • The cause is not the coronavirus pandemic
    • Book “From a Small Cinema”
    • The restrooms of the Cinematheque
  • 2. Decadent Art and "Escape from Freedom"
    • Decadent art
    • Escape from Freedom
    • Totalitarianism
    • Positive freedom
    • Words and Lies
  • 3. Lying Society
    • Values of Planet Pluke
    • Values of Planet Earth
    • Lying shopping
    • Lying Job
    • Repression
  • 4. People driven into lying society
    • Aum Shinrikyo Society and Outside of It
    • Periphery and its inner society
    • What I want to say after all
  • 5. Books
    • the book and the history
    • Dynabook and Open Source Software
    • Payment Methods
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wagamama"wagamama" means "selfishness" in Japanese, but in a literal sense it means "as I am".
in case of Nagoya Cinematheque
Index
  • Chapter. 1
    Closing of Nagoya Cinematheque
  • Chapter. 2
    Decadent Art and “Escape from Freedom”
  • Chapter. 3
    Lying Society
  • Chapter. 4
    People driven into lying society
  • Chapter. 5
    Books
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Chapter. 1
Closing of Nagoya Cinematheque

Entrance, lobby and interior of Nagoya Cinematheque

Nagoya Cinematheque (referred to as Cinematheque There is "Cinematheque Takasaki" in Gunma Prefecture, and there are several other cinemas with the name "Cinematheque" throughout the world. The abbreviation "Cinematheque" here should be taken as a term of endearment by the locals. ) closed in July 2023.

It was a small cinema with 40 seats and only one screen. For over 40 years, many film professionals and movie fans love it because the theater continued to screen selected films. The sad voices that abound around me often include a sense of resignation that “this is the way of the times.” But I am rather indignant at the flaws in our social system, that fascism has formed on top of the current free market. I see in the current society the same structure as that of the Nazis, who suppressed decadent art. I would like to argue in this book that we should recognize and resist this oppression.

The cause is not the coronavirus pandemic

The Cinematheque website explains the circumstances leading up to the closing.

■We had already reached the danger zone in March 2020.
We considered closing the theater at this stage, but the popularity of “Mini Theatre Aid” and “Cinematheque Aid,” which was established by volunteers, helped us to gather support. In addition, support measures from the government and administration have also been added, and we have been able to hold on for a few years. We decided that it was time to quit when our reserves disappeared. Since last year, the government and administrative support has been cut off, and our deficit will increase significantly.
■Currently, we are running a weekly deficit of around 180,000 yen.
If we continue at this rate, we will reach the breaking point in July. On an annual basis, this is a loss of around 9 million yen. We hope that you will understand the bitterness of our decision to close. Excerpt from the Nagoya Cinematheque website

The situation is explained with even specific figures. The request to refrain from the coronavirus pandemic has certainly done a lot of damage to the film industry’s revenues, though, However, the message can be read as not wanting the cause of the closures to be trivialized to coronavirus pandemic. Let’s review the situation of the film industry based on the data.

from Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, Inc

According to data from the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, Inc, Box-office revenues for films since 2000 have generally remained flat, with repeated increases and decreases, The decline in 2020, when the COVID-19 began, is notable. However, looking at the period before COVID-19, there has been an upward trend since around 2013, with 2019 being the highest year on record. It seems that even when the industry was at its most exciting, Cinematheque’s business was not doing well.
The Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan also compiles trends in the total number of screens in all cinemas. The number of screens as a whole is on an upward trend, but it seems to be increasing due to the increase in the number of screens owned by cinema complexes. The number of screens in the rest of the cinemas is rather decreasing. The number of screens decreased almost monotonically until around 2015 and seems to have continued to decline slightly since then.

from Ranking for all-time by Kogyo Tsushinsha

Next, we plotted the distribution of box-office revenue by release date based on the Kogyo Tsushinsha’s top 100 box-office grosses of all time. The highest grossing film of all time at over 40 billion yen was “Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train,” which was released in October 2020. In addition to “Demon Slayer”, there have been intermittent hits during COVID-19. The gap between hits and others seems to be widening.

Book “From a Small Cinema”

Yuji Hirano, who served as Cinematheque manager, passed away in January 2019. Mr. Hirano was the one who continued to staff the Cinematheque from its predecessor, “Nagoya Cineast”. A collection of writings contributed by Mr. Hirano has been published as a book titled “From a Small Cinema.” In this book, he introduces the films shown, his thoughts on films, and the predicament of movie theaters.

From a Small Cinema
2021 Japan
Yuji Hirano
Posthumous collection of writings on the life of cinematheque manager Yuuji Hirano, who passed away suddenly in 2019.

Mr. Hirano looks at film as a whole from an egalitarian perspective. For example, he talks about George Lucas’ exploration of the latest technology and welcomes the era in which people can easily watch beautiful quality films on their cell phones. He also talks about his hopes for the expansion of film possibilities as the times change from film to digital, but also exposes the managerial predicament that this will benefit the cinema complexes to a great extent, while placing a heavy burden on the mini-theaters.

In essence, the film industries, with Hollywood at its apex, are telling to us, “Please feel free to take this opportunity to withdraw from the market.” So, what do we do? “From a Small Cinema” Is digitization a revolution in film?

We are like weeds on the edge of the great road called “film”, and we are painfully aware that our fate depends on the fine car in the middle of the road. Sometimes the water thrown from the car window helps, sometimes we get run over and disappear without a trace… “From a Small Cinema” Is digitization a revolution in film?

Human history has always been built on various beginnings and endings. If we follow the market principle, the fact that the cinematheque cannot continue its operation means that consumers have judged that its role has ended. However the role of the cinematheque is not over. The Cinematheque has tried to be a place for new culture, and indeed it has been such a place. Commenting on the box office success of Hiroshi Teshigawara’s “Antony Gowdy,” which broke out of its early cinematheque woes, he said.

It is said that it is important to stay half a step ahead of the audience’s desires at the box office, and I think this film was a hit that fit that principle. However, if you will forgive my impertinence, I would like to be five or ten steps ahead of the audience in spirit. Even if we cannot expect a hit like “Gaudi,” we would like to continue to present to the audience what we think is interesting, regardless of public opinion. “From a Small Cinema” Similarities between Gaudi and Toru Takemitsu

Hirano-san continued to struggle with the managerial balance, but he still had something he wanted to show to the audience that transcended profit and loss.

One of the reasons for the closure of the Cinematheque may be the change in the way people view movies. Movies are now distributed over the Internet and can be easily viewed at home or on the move from a smartphone. The vast amount of data that has been accumulated makes it possible to propose movies that are optimized to users’ tastes and provide them with a high level of satisfaction. On the production side, the level of difficulty in shooting, editing, and releasing films has decreased, and a vast number of films are being created one after another. In the future, new films or expressions that go beyond film will continue to be created in response to such an environment.
When it comes to such a world, the role of the cinematheque is even higher. Cinematheque is more than a place to consume movies for entertainment, it is a place to train the viewer’s eye to see the world with a higher resolution. Many of the films screened at the Cinematheque do not approach the audience, the audience is often required to actively watch and think for themselves. The Cinematheque screened films that were bursting out of the mainstream, such as films that told the perspectives of various minorities from different countries "The Battle of Algiers" depicts Algeria's resistance to colonial rule in the 1950s and 1960s, "Toto and His Sisters," in which children live alone in a Romanian slum, "Bangkok Nights," which tells the story of a prostitute in Thailand and the connection between war and Japan. and films with unusually long running times. "Sátántangó" with a running time of 7 hours and 18 minutes, "Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks" with a running time of 9 hours and 11 minutes, etc.

The Cinematheque also provided a place for growth for the production side. At the end of the year, they held an independent film festival which were selected freer expression than usual. During the festival, after the program was screened, there was a “Bring Anything!” This program has led to the emergence of future filmmakers.

The restrooms of the Cinematheque

Stickers in the restrooms of the Cinematheque

This picture is a sticker that was placed in the restroom of the Cinematheque. The frog is a character named Pepe in the movie “Feels Good Man”.

Pepe is the epitome of the apathetic young man, who is depicted as just lounging around with his friends. In the comics, Pepe is depicted as just lounging around with his friends, taking a piss and saying “feels good man?” This became a popular internet meme and was used on 4chan and various other internet sites. The character continued to grow on its own and became a hate symbol for the alternative right wing in the United States.

Regardless of the author’s intentions, Pepe’s existence has come to have racist connotations. The author, Matt Furey, tried to stop this trend on the Internet, but was unable to do anything about it and decided to have Pepe die in the story.

Feels Good Man?
2020 the United State
Arthur Jones
A documentary that shows the current situation in the U.S. through the propagation of Pepe, who was just a cartoon character, as an internet meme.

The film features an NFT (non-fungible token) trader named Peter Kell. He is a successful trader of Pepe’s NFTs. The timing of Pepe’s spread as a net meme coincided with the rise of NFTs, which caused prices to skyrocket for the rarer, early NFT pieces. In the film, he boasted that Homer Pepe, a combination of Pepe and Homer from The Simpsons, was particularly rare.
After the film’s release he sold Homer Pepe. It was a cryptocurrency worth about $300,000 in 2021 dollars at the highest NFT transaction value at the time. Peter Kell’s post on Instagram about the sale https://www.instagram.com/p/CL3EjOjFKlb/?hl=en This means that Homer Pepe is considered by the market to be worth enough to cover Cinematheque’s losses for several years. A market that values Homer Pepe as expensive, when it is just a pie in the sky and can be held vacantly on the Internet, is disconnected from its real value. The free market does not allow a culture-building entity like the Cinematheque to exist, while it allows a culture-extracting entity like Homer Pepe to exist.

Some people may think that what is left is the best after the unnecessary is weeded out in the competition. This means that the films shown at the Cinematheque were “selfish” films for some people, and that today’s society does not allow such “selfishness”. This is the idea that the current society has internalized.
In this book, I would like to clarify the following points. The first is what society did not allow, that is, what was the “selfishness” of the cinematheque. The second is to explain why society did not allow it by comparing it to the situation under the fascist regime.

This document will refer to several films, and will describe them in detail and will include spoilers. There are many aspects that inevitably cannot be conveyed in writing. They are all strong films that do not lose their appeal, even if they are spoiled. Please go see them if you have the chance.Of course, these films were screened at the Cinematheque.

Next: Decadent Art and "Escape from Freedom"

Chapter. 2
Decadent Art and “Escape from Freedom”

Decadent art

Hitler suppressed art that went against Nazi values as decadent art. Even if there was no political agenda, art that was not traditional German art was considered decadent, and avant-garde art was prohibited. Stalin of the Soviet Union, too, regarded socialist realism as the only art form, and suppressed all other art forms. In Japan, avant-garde art was often accused of being anti-government and arrested Detention of Ichiro Fukuzawa and Shuzo Takiguchi https://artscape.jp/artword/index.php/%E7%A6%8F%E6%B2%A2%E4%B8%80%E9%83%8E%E3%83%BB%E7%80%A7%E5%8F%A3%E4%BF%AE%E9%80%A0%E3%81%AE%E6%8B%98%E7%95%99 , and the art world drifted in a regime supporting direction.

Totalitarianism and the propagandizing of art often go hand in hand. More than the promotion of propaganda, there is also an unusual aggression toward those who stray from it. In 1937 in Munich, Hitler held the “Great German Art Exhibition”, which was a collection of Nazi-approved art. At the same time “Exhibition of Decadent Art,” which was a display of works that the Nazis did not approve of were hold to make it seem that such art was a waste of taxpayer money. Hitler made a speech at the opening ceremony of the Great German Art Exhibition, and the emphasis of his speech was clearly an abuse of decadent art.

This contemptuous value was not only Hitler’s personal view, but one that he shared with a good number of his fellow citizens. In fact, the Decadent Art Exhibition was more popular than the Great German Art Exhibition, and the Decadent Art Exhibition was crowded with citizens who did not usually go to museums, and the works were also filled with hatred. How did Hitler and his followers create this persistent feeling of exclusion?

Escape from Freedom

Escape from Freedom
1941
Erich Fromm
This book analyzes freedom in transition from an uncivilized society to the Middle Ages to the present day from the standpoint of social psychology. Since its publication in Japan in 1951, the book has been reprinted more than 100 times.

“Escape from Freedom,” by Erich Fromm published in 1941, is known as a classic analysis of the psychology of citizens who are turning to Nazism and totalitarianism. Fromm argues that, although modernization has given people freedom, they are escaping from it.

In Fromm’s view, the starting point is how mankind has achieved freedom throughout history. With the discovery of fire, the development of tools, and the development of civilization, humans have gained control over food, clothing, and shelter, and have been able to live more freely. This can be said to be an achievement of freedom from the constraints of nature. As civilization progressed further, freedom of choice of profession and religion, suffrage, and free markets were established, and one after another, the things that had previously held people in bondage were removed. As they approach the modern age, the contours of the individual are clearly emphasized, and individuals are able to choose various ways of life.

This expanded freedom requires the individual to face a powerful external world. The greater the freedom, the greater the pressure of responsibility for one’s own decisions. In a free market, it is impossible to predict what will sell and how much will sell, creating uncertainty. Competition between individuals, and the loss of solidarity, leads to loneliness. A sense of powerlessness is created by one’s own smallness in the face of a powerful society. After all, even after gaining freedom, one may still end up submitting to something in an attempt to free oneself from anxiety and loneliness, rather than the other way around. Fromm expressed this as “Escape from Freedom.” Freedom from natural and social institutional constraints is expressed in the metaphor of independence from parents. Those who cannot become independent will seek subservience to parents with whom they can feel comfortable again. However, the original reliable parent no longer exists for mankind, which has not let go of civilization, and fabricate a snooty subservient destination.

The desire to escape from freedom and find comfort in subservience leads to totalitarianism. The desire for subordination escalates to the point where excessive aggression against the designated enemy provides a sense of oneness with one’s fellow man and a sense of security in the knowledge that one is strong. Aggression toward decadent art can be explained in this way. Even without aggression, some people may act like machines to cover up their feelings, and others may behave same as others to gain a sense of subordination. In either case, the person is controlled by forces other than voluntary and has lost their sense of self.

Totalitarianism

Often totalitarianism and individualism are seen as opposite concepts. In that sense, Fromm’s claim to see a trend from individualization toward totalitarianism may seem contradictory. On careful examination, however, totalitarianism cannot exist without the establishment of the individual. The feudal societies of the Middle Ages did not have the freedoms we have today, but that does not make them totalitarian. A society in which there are individuals and there should be freedom, but that freedom is oriented in one direction and nothing else is allowed, can be called totalitarianism.

Images of totalitarian (left) and non-totalitarian (right) states

The more disparate the individuals are, the easier it is for them to be uniformly united by the forces that make them subservient to the whole. In this view, the more individualized we become, the more likely we are to be captured toward totalization. A condition that can resist totalitarianism is one in which each person has their own orientation as individual freedom is exercised, that is solidarity with unevenness.
Totalitarianism is not that society is simply uniform, but rather that there are gradations from person to person. The more people who share the same landscape, the same values, and are aligned in the same direction, the stronger the force of identification becomes. In this situation, sameness brings group tranquility. Especially aradicalized groups will overenthusiastically praise each other for belonging to it, and will seek a greater sense of togetherness. Thus, totalitarianism can be established through group pressure to agree without the existence of a coercive regime. Fromm shows that authority is not only a concrete regime, but also an internalized authority such as duty or conscience, or an anonymous authority such as public opinion.

Positive freedom

Negative freedom (freedom from...) and positive freedom (freedom to...)

While civilization can lead to escape from freedom, Fromm is not criticizing civilization. Fromm classifies freedom into two kinds. The “freedom from” obtained through the civilization and social institutions described so far is called negative freedom. The other is positive freedom, or “freedom to”. Positive freedom is self-actualization through voluntary activity, the ability to live independently in the external world. Fromm’s argument is that by converting negative freedom into positive freedom, one can attain a stable, self-established life.

The Beatles decided to stop playing live in 1966, as they sensed the loud cheers drowned out their performances, and they felt the emptiness of a live show where no one was listening. They went into the studio and actively employed the techniques available in the studio, resulting in the album “Revolver,” which opened up a world of musical possibilities. If all they do is satisfy their need for approval by being cajoled, you are simply pandering to society and losing their self. The pursuit of one’s own musical needs is positive freedom and self-establishment.
You may think that you cannot achieve the greatness of the Beatles, but the important thing in this example is not the magnitude of your social achievements. What is important is that the individual’s way of life has voluntary, without being confused by social syncretism.

The reason for using the Beatles as an example is to illustrate that positive freedom is not the same as unrestrained selfishness. Rather, it is so valuable that it involves a great deal of respect for others and our predecessors. Human history has developed wisdom through the accumulation of such respect.
“Homer Pepe” by NFT Art, introduced in the previous chapter, has no respect. It is an existence detached from the accumulation of wisdom as well as one-sided deprivation. It is only a symbol for blind faith by those who can only judge value by symbols. The fact that Homer Pepe was sold at such a high price can be seen as an indication of how large is the size of the group of those who follow symbols without substance has grown. There is also NFT art created by author Matt Fury to counter the trend of Pepe abuse, They, too, have sold for tens of millions of dollars. I can’t say that this one is detached from history, I think it is valued as a symbol of opposition to the far right. The problem here is a market that values only symbols divorced from substance, and the people who support such a market. It is not possible to speak simply about the current market, The film “The Price of Art” (2018, USA) is a good reference for questioning the state of the art market. Of course, it was also screened at Cinematheque.

The growth of the basis of the self is blocked and a pseudo self is superimposed upon this self, which is-as we have essentially the incorporation of extraneous patterns of thinking and feeling. Organic growth is possible only under the condition of supreme respect for the peculiarity of the self of other persons as well as of our own self. This respect for and cultivation of the uniqueness of the self is the most valuable achievement of human culture and it is this very achievement that is in danger today. “Escape from Freedom” Chapter 7 Freedome and Democracy

The current void of value standards is what Fromm feared at the time of the 1941 publication. Often the inability to afford equal freedom due to disparities is cited as a social problem. That is, of course, a problem that must be corrected. But it is also a serious problem to be aware of the damage to culture and wisdom caused by a mindless existence that is disconnected from history.

The 2021 attack on Congress by far-right white supremacists in the U.S. is emblematic as a manifestation of the disconnect between the mindless and reality. More than 1,000 people who believed the presidential election was rigged participated in the attacks, and as of September 2023, more than 400 arrests had been made. These arrests Criminal proceedings in the January 6 United States Capitol attack include corporate CEOs, whose apologies have been reported in the news. According to an analysis of arrests by a University of Chicago research team as of May 2021 THE FACE OF AMERICAN INSURRECTION , 17% were business owners and 30% were white-collar workers, in other words, moderately wealthy people.
The white supremacist has lost their self. Anxious about having no axis to stand on, they bury themselves in the label “white” and try to think they are relatively superior by attacking the symbols they have defined as derogatory. A being that has lost respect for others and is disconnected from history is in a state of flux and limbo, easily swept along in whatever direction is convenient. There are many problems in the world that can be solved with money, but even if one has money and can afford the freedom to the fullest, the anxiety of those who have lost their self is unbearable, and they are dedicated to subordinating themselves to a lying society.

Words and Lies

"Pipi the Prophet" and "the Witch"

In the manga “Pippi the Prophet” by Chuya Chikazawa, there is a chimpanzee named Elizabeth who suddenly becomes able to speak. Elizabeth, who describes herself as having only the intelligence of an ape, has this to say about language.

The more I try to explain with words, the more something is different. I don’t like words very much after all.
I hate words because as soon as they leave my mouth, they leave my heart and become lies on their own.
There is no name for evil. If there is, it’s a liar! Or a fraud! “Pipi the Prophet” Vol. 2

In the story “PETRA GENITALIX” in the manga “The Witch” written by Daisuke Igarashi, there is the following line.

You have to have the same amount of “experiences” and “words” to balance your mind.
If someone who has never seen the sky says, “The clear sky is blue,” he is lying, even if he is not wrong. “The Witch” PETRA GENITALIX

Imagine a world when there was no language yet. When you wanted to tell someone something, you would have tried to convey that something in your own way, such as “aah” or “oh” in addition to gestures. The recipient of the expression also compares the situation with the expression and imagines something that the expression indicates. Through repetition, the person who received the expression will feel that they understand what the expression means, and the person who expressed it will also feel that something is being conveyed to the recipient. Established expressions remain after the death of the person who created them and are passed on to peers and offspring. Expressions become increasingly complex, but babies learn how to express themselves at an astonishing rate, and both children and adults expand their new expressions with voluntary. The expansion of expression also expands the perception of the world as seen by the individual. Expression takes the form of writing, drawing, and music, which become art and learning, and shared conventions and discipline, which build society. All of these expressions are the wisdom of humankind.
As language becomes more complex and more elaborate, and society becomes structured on words too much, and words and the something to which they refer often diverge. In the beginning, there was something and there were only words that vaguely expressed it, but when people feel like they can express anything with words, they tend to neglect the existence of something. Even the words you said, in reality you were just bringing someone else’s words, and if you think about it, the something to which the words refer may be completely different. Sometimes you do not realize that words that are socially commonly used are not properly connected to something in the individual and are left in the air. It is human nature to not face the something you don’t want to see in ourselves and to cling desperately to it by making up words to disguise it. This divergence or absence is what I call a lie. The strong conviction of the existence of something is the establishment of the self, while the loss of something and the ability to speak only lies is the loss of the self.

We can think of the whole of human wisdom as a single living organism. Each of our consciousnesses is a cell of that organism, and it grows by strengthening the connections between cells through communication via various media. If reading this text now is stimulating your brain, it is also stirring the life form of wisdom. There is a vast something in this life form that has been created throughout the history of mankind up until nowThe ideas in this section are inspired by the discussion of language acquisition centered on Michael Tomasello and others, and are discussed in Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater’s “The Language Game: How Improvisation Created Language and Changed the World” by Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater, which includes a section titled “The Life of Language”.
Those who damage culture at the end of a totalitarian homogenization dominated by false values divorced from history should be called tumors to wisdom. So far, I have given examples that stand out for their clarity, such as those who see value in symbols like Homer Pepe and those who cannot accept Trump’s failure to win the election. But now that the tumor is so widespread in society, wisdom seems to have taken a terrible turn for the worse.
In the next chapter, I will explain how widespread this tumor is, and therefore how totalitarian our society has become.

Previous: Closing of Nagoya Cinematheque
Next: Lying Society

Chapter. 3
Lying Society

Values of Planet Pluke

Kin-dza-dza!
1986 Soviet Union
Georgiy Daneliya
This sci-fi comedy recorded an audience of more than 15 million in the Soviet Union. Underneath the heartwarming worldview is a social satire that has passed through Soviet censorship.

The movie “Kin-dza-dza!” tells the story of a man who inadvertently warps to a weird planet and, bewildered by the differences in values and customs, attempts to return to Earth.

The warp destination was the planet Pluke in the “Kin-dza-dza” galaxy. There, rank is determined by the color of the pants, and the great ones behave arrogantly. Those of lower status must greet “Ku” with strange poses. Furthermore, Patsaks are ranked lower than Chatlanians, and the protagonists who are judged as Patsaks must wear bells under their noses. People on this planet have no altruism (especially Chatlanians) and do not hesitate to discard unnecessary people (They will say flatly that they have thrown the useless person out of their spaceships).
Their principle of action just follows the rationality, that is based on the goal of “wearing the pants of a higher class”. When they know that there is no mark of status on earth, they dismiss them as “savages,” and they also say that they don’t know how to live in a place where class distinctions are not explicitly defined.

The scene where the main character is about to be killed because he does not Ku. Patsaks gesturing for him to Ku behind him and Chatlanians casually discouraging him from doing so.

People on this planet have no self, and they may feel as if they are living according to a program installed by society. But that is because we are looking at it from the outside. Even if the values are objectively silly, if you live in a society where that is the norm, you will accept them and live with them. It is difficult to look at a society objectively from the inside, questioning the norms of that society. What we consider to be our own decisions are in fact only in accordance with the values instilled in us by society, and are not always voluntary acts.

The protagonist is repeatedly betrayed by the people of the planet Pluke, but when they are in trouble, he takes the risk himself to save their lives. There is a scene in which the Chatlanians do not understand his altruistic behavior until the end and ask him what his purpose is. Whether we humans on Earth can act as honorably as the protagonist, we can understand the psychology of wanting to help them. Is this altruistic behavior of Earth merely following the values instilled in them by earth society? Is it not a voluntary act? I contend that he made a voluntary decision to help. I believe that voluntary came from the wisdom of mankind. The socially accepted belief that “helping others is great” is a strong truth connected to our history. It is what has allowed him to maintain himself to survive on a weird planet, and acting irrationally beyond profit and loss. It is not the same as sympathy for the unreasonable conventions that lie in the empty Lying society.

the Patsaks are very expressive and dance. In the end, the protagonist is betrayed by this person...

The planet Pluke is full of deserts, but it is so advanced in civilization that individuals can have their own spaceships. It used to have oceans, and it seems to be a planet at the end of a civilization that has gone too far. They are so preoccupied with the class race that it seems inevitable that without altruistic feelings, they will not move toward stopping the destruction of the environment. Their rationalistic expressions are hard, and their smiles are meant to humor the great ones. In such a world, there is only one woman with an expressive face. She puts a mysterious tool in her mouth and dances around with it, making boo-boos, and then says,

“Truth is meaningless on this planet.”

Having voluntary emotions, she seems to be well aware that Planet Pluke is a society of lies dominated by trivial social conventions.

Values of Planet Earth

Again, an excerpt from Fromm’s “Escape from Freedom”:

All our energy is spent for the purpose of getting what we want, and most people never question the premise of this activity: that they know their true wants. They do not stop to think whether the aims they are pursuing are something they themselves want. In school they want to have good marks, as adults they want to be more and more successful, to make more money, to have more prestige, to buy a better car, to go places, and so on. “Escape from Freedom” Chapter 7 Freedom and Democracy

This situation is still more emphasized by the methods of modem advertising. The sales talk of the old-fashioned businessman was essentially rational. He knew his merchandise, he knew the needs of the customer, and on the basis of this knowledge he tried to sell. To be sure, his sales talk was not entirely objective and he used persuasion as much as he could; yet, in order to be efficient, it had to be a rather rational and sensible kind of talk. A vast sector of modem advertising is different; it does not appeal to reason but to emotion; like any other kind of hypnoid suggestion, it tries to impress its objects emotionally and then make them submit intellectually. This type of advertising impresses the customer by all sorts of means: by repetition of the same formula again and again; by the influence of an authoritative image, like that of a society lady or of a famous boxer, who smokes a certain brand of cigarette; by attracting the customer and at the same time weakening his critical abilities by the sex appeal of a pretty girl; by terrorizing him with the threat of “b.o.” or “halitosis”; or yet again by stimulating daydreams about a sudden change in one’s whole course of life brought about by buying a certain shirt or soap. All these methods are essentially irrational; they have nothing to do with the qualities of the merchandise, and they smother and kill the critical capacities of the customer like an opiate or outright hypnosis. “Escape from Freedom” Chapter 4 The Two Aspects of Freedom for Modern Man

From the point of view of the people of Planet Pluke, the people of Earth must feel that they have incomprehensible values. The modern society is dominated by these artificial values, and the stimulation of self-aggrandizement and insecurity continues to increase. The current society, where consumption is fueled by products and services that meet these needs, has been criticized as a “consumer society”. While the competition to satisfy the artificial desires is powering the economy, it is also creating vulnerable people in need of basic necessities and destroying the environment.

Looking at the second quote, what is meant by the word “rational” as used here? Normally, one would consider it “rational” to maximize one’s gain by conforming to/being made to conform to social standards, and one would consider it “irrational” to go to the trouble of dealing with complicated individual differences. What is rational depends on the values of the society of the time. The current term “rationality” implicitly refers to economic rationality, which is out of step with “essential rationality”. We can see how market-driven values have penetrated our innermost being The ambiguity of the word “rationality” was pointed out by the sociologist Max Weber, and Fromm’s choice of words here seems to have been made with this in mind. .

The popularization of television has contributed greatly to the formation of a consumer society. The mass media understand the demands of the masses through ratings and strive to provide what everyone wants. As a result, the mass media and the public have become mirror images. The triviality of news coverage is a barometer of the public’s loss of self.
Entertainment news is a typical example of responding to those who desire subservience. By reporting on the personal lives of celebrities, it responds to the demand for a sense of togetherness by making up for the emptiness in one’s own life with the lives of others, rejoicing with others when something good happens, and criticizing others when something scandalous happens.

Whenever Sota Fujiihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C5%8Dta_Fujii plays a game, the day’s news reports not only the easy-to-understand numbers of how old he is, how many wins, and how many championships he has won, but also what he ate during the game. That may be correct information, but it is too far removed from the essential aspects of Sota Fujii, and in that sense, it is false reporting. The correct way to maximize viewership is to read the overall direction in which the program is headed and pander to that direction. As a result, the meal in the game is aired as information that should be shared by the public in a limited amount of time, because it is a common part of the public and Sota Fujii, and is consumed as content for everyone’s sense of togetherness.
Even if you’re trying to report something a little more meaningful, it’s hard to find content that’s more affordable and gets more numbers than a meal during a game. When lies become the standard, there are forces that try to pull us back to the lie even as we try to move toward the real one. This can take the form of peer pressure, economic rationality, etc.

Lying shopping

When you enter the store, you will be greeted with a smile and a welcomeThis may be a peculiarly Japanese practice.. Customers feel fulfilled when they confirm their careful treatment as masters. In the unlikely event that there is an unfriendly clerk, they are a disturber of order and an enemy of the public. We must impose them. We have to punish them, so we do so by complaining to the person responsible or by posting on the Internet. They then realize that they are on the side of order and take comfort in that sense of subservience. To conclude his position as master, they turn the luxury of sweets supervised by the chefs he often sees on TV into an energy for tomorrow’s obedience to thier customers. In this way, they aim for a higher level of subservience.

When you shop online, you don’t even have to deal with a person. With just one click, someone delivers a product made somewhere in the world. The materials to make that product are also gathered from somewhere in the world. How aware can we be of the people who form this vast network? How much altruism is there? How different are they from the people of Planet Pluke (who have no altruism and have no hesitation in cutting down unwanted people)?

Lack of ethics of caring for others induces working under harsh conditions, illegal resource exploitation, and disregard for safety. The global economy serves as a cover for such injustices. If your try to do business ethically, you compete at a handicap. In other words, the key to winning the competition is to be able to conduct unethical business on the edge of not being discovered by utilizing a cover. Every time a commodity purchased in our daily lives is distributed, the capitalist’s wealth is accumulated as the injustice plugged into the nodes of a vast and complex supply chain is converted into cash. Each one may be a tiny injustice, but aggregated by the vast global economy, the result is violence that no individual can possibly resist. By making injustice invisible, you can make rational purchases without tainting your own sense of ethics. Even if a wrongdoing is discovered, it can be dismissed as the work of a few bad people in a huge system and one can continue to think of oneself as a good citizen. Documentary films about the dire situation under the cloak of the global economy are often shown in mini-theaters like the Cinematheque. “Ghost Fleet” (2018 U.S.), “The green lie” (2018 Austria), “Food, Inc.” (2008 U.S.), “We Feed the World” (2005 Austria), “Black Gold” (2006 U.K., U.S.) etc.

Lying Job

The Mystery of the Bullshit Jobs - Why are there more jobs that don't fucking matter?
2021
Takashi Sakai
A commentary book by the Japanese translator of David Graeber's book "Bullshit jobs"

Cultural anthropologist David Graeber’s book “Bullshit jobs,” published in 2018, was a huge hit around the world, and the term bullshit job (BSJ) is often heard in Japan. In English-speaking countries, the word “shit” is often heard, but bullshit is a much stronger and less well-behaved word. According to translator Takashi Sakai, bullshit is a word with a strong nuance of “deception” in addition to meaning “unnecessary”. Graeber’s definition of BSJ is as follows:

a bullshit job is a form of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence even though, as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that this is not the case.

It may be hard to imagine there exist such jobs for an essential worker, but Graeber’s book collects a variety of BSJ testimonials, including putting in international travel for pointless meetings. Moreover, those who do BSJ are paid better. Even if essential workers increase their workload by reducing their living expenses or improve their work with ingenuity in an attempt to increase their income, they will not be able to reach BSJ’s income.

I was also surprised to see serious BSJ workers in my first year in the IT industry (BSJ was not a word back then…). Shortly after I was assigned to a project at the end of the project, I was given the task of writing a modification form for a program that had already been modified. Normally, from this form, I would check the intent and scope of impact of the modification before reflecting it in the code, but the creation of the document, which was only necessary for the sake of formality, was put on the back burner. I made it up as I went along and the PMO pointed out that there were inconsistencies between the two documents. Abbreviation for Project Management Officer. For large projects, a team is organized to manage the project. It is not a contradiction that is immediately obvious, but one that you have to read the contents properly and reconstruct and think about in your mind to notice. The PMO people are a bunch of socially competent people from famous universities who actually have quick minds, and I marveled at their mental capacity to use their advanced abilities for such nonsense. The project had dozens of members gathered on one floor of a building. Each team was bragging to each other about working overtime and pulling all-nighters, and of course the PMO was leading the charge.
The members of this project tended to become less knowledgeable about programming as their position became more senior. On the other hand, they have the mentality to faithfully complete not only the consistency check in the documentation, but also to point out typos, fonts, and other physical appearance. Someone has to do the programming for the project to move forward. But with the person who actually does something comes responsibility. To simplify the work in this project, it is a game of how to impose the responsibility. If you think of it as such a game, it is enjoyable to a certain extent, but it is not interesting enough to devote much of your life to.
As the strongmen in this game rise to the top, they will have the power to control the rules, and even more BSJ will be nurtured. Those who fail to fulfill the responsibilities imposed on them will be devalued. On the other hand, fulfilling responsibilities is not valued as much as being able to do BSJ. It is impossible to fulfill this responsibility in the first place. This is because the project was obtained by ignorant salespeople spreading lies. What could have been done normally became impossible because of the product that the sales person sold. Therefore, the responsibility here is to keep the project within the scope of what is realistically possible, to convince the client, and to make it work. Nevertheless, the project was featured on the product’s website as a success story. This was because the customers of this project were causing social problems related to compliance, and this project had to be shown to have eliminated those problems. If we give due regard to the ability to do what is necessary, they will face the fact that BSJ is the only thing they are capable of doing. In order to protect their own position, they must continue to lie about the importance of BSJ. At this time, they are not aware that they are lying. They have lived his life diligently following the common-sense route presented by society and has demonstrated his excellence, but they think that this must not be a lie. When the lie becomes too much for them, they may become aggressive. This is because to force people to face a lie is to deny the life they have believed in. To a lying society, the real is the enemy.

Repression

As I stated at the beginning of this article, I consider the closing of the Cinematheque to be fascist repression on the free market. Of course, the police do not act as they did during World War II, and no one exists who believes they were complicit in the closing of the Cinematheque. Economic violence is carried out by the “invisible hand”. The principle by which the invisible hand operates is neither good nor evil. However, if the psychology of unjustified hostility by people controlled by lies is brought together, the invisible hand becomes a force that should be called repression and damages the accumulated wisdom of humankind.
For those who are subservient to a society of lies, truth and authenticity are difficult to face, and the attack on wisdom becomes more intense as the proportion of the group homogenized by subservience to the society of lies increases. In today’s society, where lies are so pervasive, the survival of the accumulation of wisdom is supported by the economically irrational activities of those who value it. The Cinematheque was one of those cinemas that engaged in such activities and continued to show authentic films that are enemies to a society of lies.

A typical example of repression is the prohibition of telling truths that do not conform to the totalitarian direction. In the next chapter, we will present examples of films shown at the Cinematheque that depict truths that disturb the peace of the lying society.

Previous: Decadent Art and "Escape from Freedom"
Next: People driven into lying society

Chapter. 4
People driven into lying society

This chapter presents two documentaries screened at the Cinematheque. Even if a documentary is a factual film, it contains both the choice of what to film and the director’s intention of how to show what they have filmed. So, for example, the sentence “A is X” means “I interpreted A to be X based on the director’s representation of A. Please read this section with the understanding that this chapter is particularly subjective.

Aum Shinrikyo Society and Outside of It

When the forces of great influence say “this is right!”, we need films that make people question and verify it, and also make them question their own thinking. That is the significance of mini-theaters. “From a Small Cinema” From “A” to “FAKE” - The Return of Tatsuya Mori

In “From a Small Cinema,” Mr. Hirano said this. This feeling became clear to him when he saw “A,” directed by Tatsuya Mori, released in 1998.

A
1998 Japan
Tastuya Mori
A documentary that goes inside Aum Shinrikyo and films its devotees, led by Hiroshi Araki, Deputy Director of Public Relations, as well as the society outside as seen from the devotees' perspective.

“A” is a film shot undercover inside Aum Shinrikyo after the sarin gas attack. The film shows the devotees more vividly than any other media, including the chanting of the Venerable Master’s Buddhist prayer and songs in the office and the practice of wearing strange equipment. In the media at the time, Aum’s devotees were supposed to be mind-controlled and incapable of proper judgment or emotion. The film shows a gap from the image that had been reported in the press up to that point. Each of them has a strong personality. For example there is a scene they watched TV together, chatting and laughing about how they are being reported. Mr. Araki, the Aum’s publicist, is a particularly interesting character, with his good-naturedness and the human fluctuations that can be seen in his every turn, and the film also revolves around him.
What I understand particularly clearly in the stories of devotees is their criticism of our society. They are firmly confronted with the secular world and understand that the world is a lying society. It is because they understand this that they left the secular world and joined Aum.
On the other hand, I do not understand their belief in Aum. Since I don’t understand it, I can only say that I am biased toward my own subjective viewpoint, but my honest impression is that their narrative of piety is still a convenience to avoid facing reality. Whenever there was something absurd, they would just dismiss it all as a practice, and the practice of eliminating one’s appetite and sexual desire seemed to me to be a way of seeking peace by eliminating the self. If all one wants to do is to escape from innuendo by renouncing both worldliness and self, I consider this to be a denial of connection with the history of humankind.

“A” shows us the outside world as seen from the perspective of Aum: the media, the police, and the public. Mori’s films and writings often deal with the media and the public’s suspension of thought.

The media only sees the devotees as symbols of “Aum, a criminal group,” and never faces the individuals beyond the symbols. They have no civility toward individuals, and are obsessed only with capturing the image they want to capture to gain viewer ratings. Mr. Araki is fed up with the media’s terrible practice of hidden photography and deception, and he demands that they cover the story legitimately. The media did not respond to his protest letter, and when Mr. Araki called the media, they said they were in a meeting and would not take our call. As they struggled against the quibble, the interviewer could not respond to Mr. Araki’s point, “That’s common sense, isn’t it?” After his laugh that seemed to cover up the awkwardness, he still continued his demand to cover the story.
They are clad in the symbol of the “righteous press representing the citizens” and have installed the figure of the parrot as the “enemy of the citizens” against it, and seem unable to think of anything else.
NHK was able to interview ordinary devotees, perhaps with the permission of common sense manners, and this was also captured on the film. The interviewer was slurred, although the devotees were responding calmly but not getting the story answers they were expecting. After the interview was deemed not to have been established and interrupted, the devotee mumbles, “This would be dumb if it were broadcast.” After the interruption, the interviewer, still trying to somehow get the story into a story that can be reported, asked if it is possible to convey the story without misunderstanding, but the devotee replied, “Misunderstanding is for the listeners to do.” He understands that the world cannot think beyond the picture given by society.
In “A2”, shot three years after “A”, a scene is shown in which the neighbors who had been monitoring the aum house in the area are getting along. Fuji Television’s camera is also in the scene, but such a friendly scene is never broadcast. If it were actually broadcast, it would only draw public outcry. A book “A - The Real Face of Aum that the Mass Media Did Not Report,” written by Director Mori, describes in detail how the mass media forbade the broadcasting of Aum footage taken by him for fear of public outcry.

The media circulated the story that Aum was evil and an enemy of the citizens, and the citizens followed suit and started an anti-Aum movement every time Aum moved out of their homes. In the documents submitted to the court by residents who sued Aum, the anti-exclusionary sentiment is evident, with statements such as “a group of idiots,” “just because they have human faces, they are not human,” and “it is out of the question to say anything about human rights to such a murderous group, and there is no need to give them human rights.

The police’s “korobi kobo”A police officer intentionally falls and arrests an innocent person for obstruction of justice. are also filmed. It is an act that deviates from the norms of the rule of law, but this officer was clearly aware that he was being caught on camera. It was an imposing act of justice to catch the evil parrot. This must have been the atmosphere that was fostered in the public safety department at that time. This officer was just acting according to HIS society’s common sense, which sometimes deviates from the rules.The person arrested in the film for preventing a fall was released before he could be prosecuted, thanks to a tape recorded by Director Mori as evidence. Conversely, public charges were filed against this officer, who was also acquitted. Since a violent apparatus such as the police is a body of violence that is monopolized by the government and delegated by the sovereign people, they should not be allowed to do their job according to their self-imposed morals.

The film was also screened at the 1999 Berlin International Film Festival. The following comment made during the Q&A session there:

The Aum devotees, as well as the media, police, and ordinary citizens who appear in this work, all seem to me for the life of me to be unrealistic. It seems to me as if they are all role-players who were given scripts in advance. If these are really real people, Japan would be a very strange country. In short, it is a fake country. Tatsuya Mori “A - The Real Face of Aum that the Mass Media Did Not Report”

Looking at Japan from a German perspective, one can objectively see the weirdness of the society. When Director Mori responded that German society must be the same, he was met with a backlash that this could not be true.
Contrary to the great response overseas, “A” did not attract a large audience in Japan at the time of its release. Many images capturing the reality of Aum, which other mass media had not been able to film before, did not attract an audience. I think what the Japanese wanted was a device for them to feel a sense of unity by directing their hatred toward their common enemy, Aum, and they did not want to be confronted with the fact that they were being controlled by a lie.
Did you get Mr. Hirano’s comment at the beginning of this section? This is the “selfishness” of the Cinematheque that society does not allow.

Periphery and its inner society

Shortly after the attack on the U.S. Congress, there was also an incident in Japan that revealed the disconnect between the lying society and reality. It is the case of the falsified signatures of the Aichi prefectural governor for recall. Compared to the attack on the U.S. Congress, it had less impact, and in the end, Mayor Kawamura was reelected, and it ended in a haphazard manner.
Seven years before this incident, the Tokai TV documentary “Homeless President” was screened at Cinematheque. The central character of the film, Takeshi Yamada, the homeless President, was later elected as a city councilor with the official approval of the Japan Restoration Association, and later, as deputy executive director of a recall group, he was involved in the falsification of signatures and was arrested.Former city council member who was a member of the recall group admits involvement in forgery, apologizes, and says he wants to be brought to justice.https://www.tokai-tv.com/tokainews/article_20210521_173402

the Homeless President
2014 Japan
Koji Hijikata
Documentary about the president of the NPO Rookies, the students who study there, and the staff who work there.

Mr. Yamada is the president of a non-profit organization called Rookies. The articles of incorporation state the following objectives:

The purpose of this corporation is to create an environment of re-challenge education for those who have left high school baseball clubs or have dropped out of high school, to create a society where hard work is rewarded, and to contribute to the realization of a bright, prosperous, and hopeful society through baseball-related projects. from Cabinet Office NPO Portal Sitehttps://www.npo-homepage.go.jp/npoportal/detail/023001898

In short, Rookies is a school that provides an environment for failing baseball players to play baseball and “rehabilitate themselves through baseball”.The name “Rookies” is a reference to the manga “ROOKIES” written by Masanori Morita. It is a story about rebuilding a baseball club full of delinquents. He tried to realize this story in reality. Frankly speaking, there is no one who would come forward, and it is the periphery of society that young people who have no place to belong are reluctant to enter. The film begins with the fact that the students are not coming in as they would like, and the management is so difficult that its survival is in jeopardy. Some of the details may not be accurate, as I am writing this from memory only from the one time I saw it. I am the type of person who does not remember much about the movies I have seen, but this movie is still in my memory because it was so shocking and I ruminated on it many times afterwards.

From the beginning to the end of the film, all Mr. Yamada does is collect money (such as jumping into snack bars and asking for donations, borrowing from black market money, etc.) and then cut back on his own life (as the title suggests, he eventually becomes homeless), and that’s all he does. He does not attend staff meetings, does not seem to be thinking about current problems or how to improve them, and does not seem to be turning things around through any kind of awareness.
In accordance with social norms, he is not fulfilling his duties as president of a non-profit organization to his students and staff. Nevertheless, he did not give up. He blindly believed the popular saying, “If you don’t give up and believe, one day it will come true,” and so he was spellbound by his mission to “never let his students see him give up.” Hence, he would ask people to donate to the Rookies on a daily basis, only to repeatedly raise funds for its operations. Since the purpose of the articles of incorporation states “to create a society where hard work is rewarded,” he must have been aware that the current society is not one where hard work is rewarded. The purpose has been conveniently replaced by blind faith.
Mr. Yamada is a man who makes us feel that he would have been a good person in a simple society like the farming communities of the Edo period. I feel a gleam of straight and unusual energy that arises from his feelings for the children who have fallen through the cracks. In the movie, we see him objectively, so we get the impression that he is a boorish and dangerous person, but he would later be elected as a city councilor, so if we had met him in person, he would seem to be very personable. The film presents the reality that it is difficult to even know what a good deed is because of the lies that pervade society, even if one naively tries to do good. Mr. Yamada has an ego that says, “I can’t leave dropout children alone,” and thus has been pushed to the periphery along with irrationality.

There is another key character in this film, the coach of the baseball team. The coach has internalized the idea of developing strong people as education, and even if there is bullying on the team, for example, he seems to have the idea that the child being bullied should also become stronger.
There is a scene where this bullied child is late for practice. After asking him the reason for his lateness, he explained that his parents were fighting and he threatened to kill himself to stop them, resulting in a police incident, and that he went directly from the police to the practice the next day. As soon as the explanation is over, the coach slaps the kid repeatedly and then tells him not to do it again. This coach was fired from his previous team for corporal punishment and ended up drifting to the rookies. He said he had sealed off corporal punishment after that, but said he believed he had no choice but to do so only at this time. It means that he slapped him even in front of the camera, knowing that corporal punishment is not socially acceptable and that he was aware of the risks involved in doing so.
If I were in this position, I would not use corporal punishment, and after listening to him in detail, I would only be able to finally say something without substance, such as, “Let’s not do that kind of thing. For him, it is just a waste of time, but such an attitude is the “right” answer that society will not condemn. The slap that the coach performed is definitely condemned by society and is “wrong”. There is no objective measure of how much of that emotional behavior is mixed with instructive effects or a desire for control. Corporal punishment cannot be justified to society; it is the “selfishness” of the coach. There are those in the world who teach without corporal punishment and with a firm commitment to the child and their environment. This requires a tremendous amount of time and effort, and it can be life-draining. In both cases, someone on the periphery is required to act beyond rationality. Rather, it would be more appropriate to say that they are on the periphery because they have spilled over from the central rationale. If they could be helped by rational coping, they would not be on the periphery in the first place. Rationality is the rule for the peace of those aligned to the central standard, and the periphery is where irrationality is imposed on those who fall outside the standard. Imposing common sense based on central rationality while ignoring the situation on the periphery is violence.

The Tokai TV Documentary Series is a series of programs broadcast on Tokai TV, edited for film and shown in movie theaters. The coach’s slap was also broadcast on television. This slap was highly unpopular with viewers, and many complaints were received by the TV station. Of course, Although they would have expected this unpopularity, the producers broadcast the story to those who could imagine the deeper aspects of the story. Some of the complainers seemed to perceive the slapping as a shocking image to gain ratings. Rather, television has atrophied in response to such cheap criticism and has been forced to move toward ratings supremacy…. This film is the “selfishness” of the documentary team at Tokai Television to challenge against the lack of risk-taking in the industry.
It is not only the coach who slapped him, but also Mr. Yamada who is being vilified by the viewers.

The response after the broadcast was a parade of bad words.
“The president is being too naive.” “The leaders must be able to see the big picture, or the children will be sacrificed.” “The president’s stupidity is pathetic.” “He’s too stupid.” “If he has time to get down on his knees, he should be working.” “Stop smoking instead of trying to make money.” ……
(From an email sent to the 2013 Homeless Board President) Katsuhiko Abuno “Farewell TV: Filming a Documentary”

To put these comments in a simple way, it can be said that there is a lack of understanding of the periphery. There is no desire to know what one does not know, only a lack of understanding that directly leads to anger. It might be more appropriate to say that they are trying not to see the irrationality that has occurred by imposing central common sense. They seem to like stories where dropouts find success through hard work and stories where they can lean on unfavorable circumstances and grieve the tragedy together. However, it is uncomfortable for those in the center to be shown the reality of the periphery. This is because people are looking for propaganda that will reinforce their belief in the central motto: “If you don’t give up and believe, one day it will come true.”

Eventually, it seems that the advertising effect from the film adaptation was significant, and the rookies will continue to exist after the film is shown. Mr. Yamada commented on Facebook when a donation was received from a movie viewer.

■ We received a donation to the NPO Rookies.
It has been five years since a documentary film was made about the activities of the Rookies. Last week, we received a donation from a person who had seen the film. At the time, the issue of “child poverty” was not yet socially recognized. I think it was difficult for the viewers of the film to understand the essence of the film, as it did not convey the purpose of solving the social problem that the Rookies were working on. I wanted many people to understand that support groups that try to solve “child poverty” head-on will fall into poverty themselves, and that this is a problem that must be tackled by society as a whole. This is a film that I wanted to convey my appeal to the audience as I struggled with this issue. (omitted) As those who have seen the film can understand, groups like the Rookies themselves are beaten down by society. (omitted) The disparity will cascade to the next generation, and the society will become more and more polarized. I would like to make as many children as possible who are on the road to the losers into winners with the Rookies. This year, I would like to fight even harder to correct the disparity. from Facebook of Takeshi Yamada Jun. 15th 2017

The film was not made to communicate in the way Mr. Yamada expected. If the film had been “easy to understand and close to the tragedy,” it would have lived up to Mr. Yamada’s expectations, and there might not have been a snide e-mail. However, Tokai TV’s documentary team does not produce such clear works, but challenges viewers to confront uncertainty. I think they are rejecting the “winners or losers” kind of cheapness seen in Yamada’s earlier comment.

In the scheme of the center, which is inside the order, and the periphery, which is outside the order, the coach is looking directly at the periphery as seen by the coach without regard to the common sense of the center, while Mr. Yamada is on the periphery but blindly trusts the common sense of the center.
The statement “rehabilitated through baseball” exists as common sense, but it is doubtful how much substance it carries within each individual, and one senses the presence of an “anonymous authority” rooted in the center. It would be fine to say “rehabilitated through badminton” or “rehabilitated through kendamahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendama,” but many people would probably feel strange if you said that. Sports are sanctified, and baseball is at the top of the list. There are two types of education: “education that imparts knowledge” and “education that disciplines." The word “knowledge” has a nuance of classroom knowledge, but I’m using it here in a broader sense to include all kinds of learning, such as the sense of physical movement and the art of communication. I am not claiming that baseball education is simply “education to discipline”. Nor do I want to deny any kind of “discipline education” at all. The word “education,” which somehow exists in the center, is colored with the latter meaning. Inherent in the word “education” is the unconscious value of whether one can endure the severe discipline that is common in baseball clubs, and if one cannot, then it is inevitable that one will be sent to the periphery. The “education” prevalent in the center is in effect just “inspection,” and the " reeducation” that the rookies stand for is just “re-inspection.” I find it foolish to not recognize the diversity of ways of life and to assume that one can be judged based on easy standards. Forcing people to conform to norms created by an “anonymous authority” at the center and suppressing those who do not conform is totalitarianism itself.
Why is it that in Mr. Yamada’s earlier comment, “groups like the Rookies themselves are beaten down by society”? Those on the periphery who do not meet the norms of the center are viewed as social evils. For those who have lost their identity, attacking the periphery becomes a device to gain relative peace of mind through convenient interpretations such as “I am in the center because I am doing my best and doing it right”. What has been oppressing Mr. Yamada is the central norm that he himself blindly believes in.

What do you all imagine between Mr. Yamada’s compassionate work for the children and his later conviction for falsifying signatures? Of course, I don’t know what actually happened, but it feels like a linear connection in my mind.
The recall of Governor Omura was triggered by the opposition of nationalists to the Aichi Triennale, which included a statue of a comfort woman and a work dealing with the Emperor of Japan. For those with a strong belief in the center, nationalism has become the greatest stronghold and receptacle for many people. It is easy to imagine Mr. Yamada, whose efforts are unrewarded, beaten down by society, and isolated, trying to satisfy his sense of subservience by pandering to cheap nationalism. Blindly believing in the empty words floating around in a lying society, Mr. Yamada was swept along unsteadily without a foot on the ground, drifting in the direction of what was convenient and ultimately ending up participating in crimes on the sly. Although Mr. Yamada was aware of the injustice of his actions, it was probably more rational for him to choose to commit crimes in the society to which he was swept away.

What I want to say after all

Humans are social creatures, and it is natural for them to live according to social conventions, and it is also a fundamental part of human nature to live according to values created by society. However, today’s society is a snooty one, and even living earnestly without questioning social conventions is a situation that contributes to this snootiness.
People live in their own world and follow the rules of their own world. It is easy to assume that if you don’t step outside of those rules, you are not making a mistake, but those rules are just standards set by the public (and often for their convenience). The accumulation of such mindless forms today’s major social problems. A society dominated by lies cannot move in the right direction. In summary, today’s social problems lead back to the problem of loss of self due to totalitarianism. Even if “big power” such as technology or government tries to fix the resulting distortion, it will only create another distortion by a common justice that ignores the “small voice”. And when that “big power” is controlled by those who control it, it turns into inhumane violence. There needs to be a bottom-up solution through a chain of actions, first by you, then by your neighbor, and then by that neighbor’s neighbor, and so on.
In order to develop a healthy history in today’s society, each individual must maintain their own identity without being in sync with mindless society’s “common sense” rules. It is important to question, and have the opportunity to question, the correctness of the forces of great influence, as Hirano said at the beginning of this chapter. The self is established when one’s correctness is fostered along with a deep respect for the wisdom that is outside of oneself, without blindly adopting the correctness that is outside of oneself. It may even create friction and incomprehension as “selfishness”. While it is completely evil for a great totalitarian power to suppress “selfishness” unconditionally, we believe that the clash between “selfishness” and “selfishness” is an essentially necessary conflict for the accumulation of human wisdom.

As a result of the advancement of individualism through the development of civilization, the power of syncretism is ever increasing, lies are spreading as a matter of course, and the power of the individual to contend is relatively very small. In Chapter 2, I stated that solidarity with unevenness is necessary to resist totalitarianism. In order to resist the torrent of syncretism and create an unevenness, we need a place where we can lean on and not be isolated. In such a place, we can gain a sense of authenticity and become grounded and oriented in our own direction. For me, the Cinematheque was the place to stop by. Furthermore, by watching the rich diversity of films at the Cinematheque, I was able to look at myself relatively from within the “correctness of the influential forces” and strengthen my own “selfishness”. A healthy society is one in which small places form a rich and complex intertwining and solidarity. Such places have been crushed one after another by lying society.

Previous: Lying Society
Next: Books

Chapter. 5
Books

the book and the history

The Secret of Kells
2009 Ireland etc.
Tomm Moore
An animated fantasy film set in 9th century Ireland that tells the story of the creation process of the "Book of Kells" by the protagonist Brendan.

“The Secret of Kells” is an animated fantasy set in 9th century Ireland. The film is created using real people and myths. At that time, Ireland had its own Christian culture and arts that differed from those on the continent, and monasteries served as centers of scholarship, religion, and the arts. The elaborate geometric patterns, such as spirals and concentric circles, are particularly distinctive. This pattern has its roots in the indigenous beliefs of the pre-Christian era, when the boundary between nature and man was blurred.

the Chi Rho page from the Book of Kells. The Greek letter χρι is written, meaning Christ. When the monogram is enlarged, fine modifications can be seen on the lower right.

The protagonist of the story is the boy who draws the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is an Irish national treasure and is currently housed in the Trinity College Library in Dublin. Since printing technology was not available at that time, Bibles were copied by hand. A manuscript is not just a written text, but the text and pictures are decorated with very detailed patterns. The small, exquisite drawings that can only be seen under magnification, the production of various colors of ink, and the decoration with gold and other materials are artifacts that reflect the best of the technology of the time. The Book of Kells has been called the most beautiful book in the world. It is amazingly beautiful even to modern eyes, so it is no wonder that people of that time felt mystical power in it.
The film is based on the Irish tradition, with a medieval view of art that makes extensive use of geometric patterns. Such images, coupled with synchronized music and sound effects, create a film that is a direct adaptation of the aesthetics of the Book of Kells.

Nature as well as figures are drawn with geometric line combinations, animating a flat, medieval painting-like world. In contrast to the rest of the landscape, the Cellach's room in the lower right is filled with figures that evoke civilization on one side.

The protagonist, Brendan, has no parents and is raised by his uncle, Cellach, as his guardian. Kerouach is the abbot of the monastery and a man with a strong sense of responsibility. He anticipated an invasion from the Vikings, so he focused on building the fort anyway, even using artists as labor. In this film, the fort is both a symbol of civilization and a separator between man and nature. Kerouach is obsessed with keeping Brendan inside the fort and having him help build it, and forbids him from going into the dangerous forest and drawing the Book of Kells.

Of course Brendan went to the forest and challenged himself to be able to complete the Book of Kells. Overlaid on the story of his growth, the film shows the path humanity has taken. He becomes friends with Aisling, the forest fairy, and begins to play in nature. His battle with Crom Cruach, the god of the pre-Christian indigenous religion, was also won by recognizing the power of civilization. He then achieved independence from his uncle, who tried to bind him to the fort, and went on his way to complete the Book of Kells.

Along the way, the fort was attacked by Vikings. The Book of Kells was believed to have the power to blind the eyes of evil, but when the Vikings actually saw its contents, nothing happened and the book was easily discarded. In the end, neither the fort nor the Book of Kells could prevent the Viking invasion. However, both Brendan and Cellach survived, and the story ends when Cellach was finally able to show the completed Book of Kells to the Vikings.

Historically, Ireland was frequently invaded by the Vikings from the 9th to 12th centuries, and after the Normans landed in 1169, the country came under progressive domination from the outside. Around the end of the 19th century, as modernization led to the rise of nation-states in Europe and the rise of nationalism, Gaelic (Irish) language and cultural revival movements began to emerge. While it created excessive chauvinism and strife, culture played a major role as a link to national identity. The Book of Kells remains a national treasure, and this film was made about it.

Director Tom Moore, who created the film, was influenced by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. Interview with Director Tom Moore (in Japanese)
https://www.pen-online.jp/article/000693.html
He also said that he drew on Gustav Klimt for his two-dimensional representation. In addition to his Irish heritage, the film is connected to a number of different national cultures.

Klimt's portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, which was taken by the Nazis, resulting in a postwar dispute over ownership. Wikimedia Commons

Klimt’s flat expression and gold decoration are considered to be influenced by Japanese art. With the end of Japan’s isolation from the rest of the world with the fall of the Edo shogunate, Japanese art became known abroad, and a Japonism boom took place in Europe. Klimt was also the first head of the Vienna Secession. The secessionist movement was formed to separate itself from the existing authoritative and conservative art world and to promote the development of pure and free art, with the aim of active contact with other countries and a break with commercial agendas. Contrary to this desire, many of Klimt’s works, which are contrary to traditional German art, were confiscated by the Nazi invaders, and some of them were lost.

Culture has been formed in a complex historical tangle. It has sometimes been subjected to mindless violence by unthinking groups, and the culture has been in danger of being lost. Nevertheless, people have been empowered by their own culture in an oppressive environment, and the culture has been passed on to empower future generations.
If you look only at the surface of modern society, you may think it is a mass of lies and garbage, but if you wipe away some of the dirt and dig deep, you will see the infinite wisdom of humankind. Books are one of the tools to do this digging. Unfortunately, the bookstores are filled with practical books to pander to a society of lies and fiction to reinforce belief in a society of lies. Still, there are many bookstores that are willing to deliver “selfish” books, even at the cost of economic irrationality. I encourage you to find such a store and visit it. Unfortunately, the bookstores are filled with practical books that pander to a lying society and fiction that reinforces belief in a lying society. Still, there are many bookstores that are willing to deliver “selfish” books, even at the cost of economic irrationality. Please try to find such a store and visit it.

Dynabook and Open Source Software

Illustration used in Alan Kay's essay

In 1972, Alan Kay presented the concept of the personal computer in an essay entitled “A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages”. At that time, computers were located in laboratories and large corporations, and were used for computing and data processing, not for personal ownership. In his paper, Kay presented a picture of a child playing with a device similar to today’s tablets in such an era. This imaginary device is named “dynabook”. The name is a combination of the words “dynamic” and “book,” which directly translates to “dynamic book”. The following is a description of what a dynabook is:

It may be something with the attention grabbing powers of TV, but controllable by the child rather than the networks. It can be like a piano: (a product of technology, yes), but one which can be a tool, a toy, a medium of expression, a source of unending pleasure and delight…and, as with most gadgets in unenlightened hands, a terrible drudge!! from “A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages”

Notice that Kay focuses on “who is in control” here. Is the computer a “source of pleasure” or a “source of pain” for people today? Is it a “terrible drudge”? Kay’s “source of pleasure” can be said to correspond to Fromm’s “positive freedom”. In short, the question of whether or not a computer is a “source of pleasure” can be rephrased as whether the computer user is in control of their own will or whether they are being controlled by someone else.

Today’s computers are less likely to feel like the tools for exploring the kind of freedom that Kay presented. In an age where everyone owns a smartphone and is constantly exposed to comparisons with others, the ability to efficiently stimulate self-expression and insecurity has resulted in people being constrained by ever more bloated demands for approval. In addition, the vast information processing power of computers enables a global economy of mass consumption by replacing resources and labor with numbers. The global economy provides a massive supply of cheap and convenient goods at the expense of imposing inequality on the weak. In a society that enjoys such unified benefits, any attempt to deviate from this “selfish” business model means that one is forced to compete with cheap and convenient goods. In other words, “selfishness” is practically suppressed. After all, our present way of life is bound to a lying rationality.
Here, remember that so far humanity has been free from the bondage of nature and social institutions. I believe that the next step is freedom from the lying desires created by society, which is the path that humanity should follow. An environment should be created in which living a common sense, rational life style is naturally connected to the development of wisdom. If we just leave everything to chance and remain passive, someone will not give us such a society. We need to take control back into our hands.

Smalltalk, the Dynabook’s operating system, leaves complete control to the user. You can refer to the code of the operation being performed and even update the behavior by rewriting it. The children in the essay open the source code of a space war game, rewrite the program, and experiment with the laws of physics in the computer. The computers we use today are not moving toward a Dynabook-like dynamic. In many cases they are being used according to the usage designed by companies. In addition, many codes and data are owned by companies and are black boxes of details.
On the other hand, a vast amount of source code is open to the public as a shared asset, and many engineers update it on a daily basis. Making the source code visible to everyone with the aim of developing it together is called open source. In the 1980s, a movement to maintain source code as common property began, led by Richard Stallman. The recent trend toward open source is not so much a continuation of the ideas of that time, but more because of its superiority as a development method. In other words, rather than monopolizing source code, it is more beneficial for a company to share it with many engineers to improve quality. In addition, as the use of cloud computing and the scope of AI expands, data, computing resources, and user enclosure are becoming more valuable, and the reasons for keeping source code private are weakening. It is important to recognize the current situation where the freedom to use technology can change depending on the convenience of the company.

This book makes use of many open source applications and libraries. HTML is generated using hugo. As Javascript libraries, chart.js is used for drawing graphs, tippy.js for displaying tooltips, and glightbox for enlarging images. The conversion source markdown was created using emacs, and the explanatory image was created using Libre office. The operating system is linux. There are many more software that this document depends on that could be mentioned if I dig up more.

This book is the result of the blood and flesh of many other things, including several movies and books that are mentioned in this book. This book is based on a vast amount of human wisdom. And if you, after reading it, nurture the following wisdom, I will be more than happy to do so.
The source of this document is available at https://github.com/kuku9-net/wagaco. Feel free to modify it in whole or in part, copy and paste it, and redistribute it. Of course, you may change the parts that are ideologically incompatible. However, redistributions may not be sold or traded in yen, dollars, or any other currency that can be converted into those currencies.

Payment Methods

Thank you for reading this book to the end. I want to tell you something important: This book is not free. Please pay for the value of what you read. I believe that if there is no monetary payment, it satisfies Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial, but I could be wrong. However, as you will understand if you have read this far, we cannot expect the current totalitarian-controlled market to properly price this book, nor are we willing to be part of a fascist economy. If I leave it to the current free market to act rationally, I will be affirming a violent exploitative structure, and I don’t want to act irrationally against it because it is hard to do so.
We need an economy on this side that is detached from that side, which is full of lies. We need to create an economy on this side where activities on this side of the economy are not mixed with injustice, where there is a healthy connection to history and a promise to contribute to its development. By connecting people who are irrationally scattered on the periphery in the economy on this side to the network on this side, it can also serve as a place of refuge for isolated people.

This Side and That Side

A gift economy is an economy that can be easily created by anyone. I am not denying barter or a monetary economy, just recommending it because it is easy. If it is possible to create a monetary economy that is separate from the yen, that is attractive. In Japan, the law prohibits anything that functions similarly to money, so creating a safe money economy would require either a change in the law or the breaking up of the government. Please make payment by any of the following methods

Method 1: hand over directly

Please give me something of value or service that is worthy of this book. I don’t want a formal gift, but rather a share of the excess in my life. The less influence of the economy on the other side, the better, and if it is produced by you, the best.

Method 2: hand over indirectly

Find someone around you who looks like this side and give them something that person might need. Then tell that person about this book, and they can find someone else and give the thing that next person might need. If people keep doing that, maybe someday something will reach me.

Method 3: Spend your money in the right stores

Spend the money for something beyond economic rationale, like a cinematheque. Not only small cinemas, but also live music venues, event spaces, independent bookstores, other private stores, local vegetable and craft producers, etc.

By the way, Cinematheque has closed, but will be revived in 2024 as “Nagoya Kinema Neu”. Since nothing has changed in the situation, we assume that the severe business situation will continue. Those who want to resist the lying society are encouraged to go.

Method 4: Spread this book “ENTHUSIASTICALLY”

If you cannot afford to give something away, then please spread this book to others. At this time, please do not just spread the URL to an unspecified number of people on social networking sites, etc., but set a goal for each person and put your thoughts firmly into it. Quality is more important than quantity.

Method 5: Email me your feedback

If you have any comments, criticisms, or concerns, please contact us at:
email: wagaco@kuku9.net

Previous: People driven into lying society